Posted December 29, 200816 yr Weekly sales for a No1 single have dropped below the 30,000 mark 35 times (including 33 times this decade and twice in the 90's). Here are the number of weeks per year in which the No1 single has sold less than 30k: 1990 1 1991 1 2002 1 2003 0 2004 4 2005 7 2006 10 2007 8 2008 3 Low sales peaked in 2006 when for 10 weeks of the year the No1 single shifted less than 30k. However last year only Madonna, Mint Royale and Coldplay dipped below the 30k mark... January, February and July are the months more likely to contain a sub30k No1 week while May, November and December are least likely to see uber low No1 sales. January 8 February 4 March 3 April 2 May 1 June 2 July 4 August 3 September 3 October 3 November 1 December 1 Here are the lowest weekly No1 sales of alltime: 01 25/03/06 17,694 Orson No Tomorrow 02 20/01/07 20,400 Leona Lewis A Moment Like This 03 23/01/05 20,463 Elvis Presley One Night / I Got Stung 04 30/01/05 21,128 Ciara Feat. Petey Pablo Goodies 05 15/01/05 21,262 Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock 06 30/10/04 21,749 Eric Prydz Call On Me 07 05/02/05 21,887 Elvis Presley It’s Now Or Never 08 28/07/07 22,143 Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Umbrella 09 21/07/07 23,092 Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Umbrella 10 28/06/08 23,212 Coldplay Viva La Vida 11 23/10/04 23,519 Eric Prydz Call On Me 12 06/11/04 23,706 Ja Rule Feat. R Kelly & Ashanti Wonderful 13 11/02/06 24,854 The Notorious B.I.G. Feat. Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge & Avery Storm Nasty Girl 14 12/01/02 25,400 Daniel Bedingfield Gotta Get Thru This 15 29/09/07 26,248 Sean Kingston Beautiful Girls 16 08/01/05 26,400 Steve Brookstein Against All Odds 17 10/09/05 26,661 Gorillaz Feat. Shaun Ryder Dare 18 14/07/07 26,757 Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Umbrella 19 17/03/07 27,000 Take That Shine 20 04/02/06 27,482 The Notorious B.I.G. Feat. Diddy, Nelly, Jagged Edge & Avery Storm Nasty Girl 21 21/06/08 27,537 Mint Royale Singin’ In The Rain 22 21/04/07 27,760 Timbaland Feat. Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake Give It To Me 23 13/01/90 28,000 New Kids On The Block Hangin’ Tough 24 01/04/06 28,287 Ne-Yo So Sick 25 19/08/06 28,638 Shakira Feat. Wyclef Jean Hips Don’t Lie 26 26/08/06 28,955 Shakira Feat. Wyclef Jean Hips Don’t Lie 27 12/01/91 29,000 Iron Maiden Bring Your Daughter …To The Slaughter 28 05/08/06 29,109 Shakira Feat. Wyclef Jean Hips Don’t Lie 29 28/10/06 29,201 My Chemical Romance Welcome To The Black Parade 30 18/03/06 29,258 Chico It’s Chico Time 31 02/09/06 29,365 Beyoncé Feat. Jay-Z Dèjá Vu 32 12/02/05 29,496 Eminem Like Toy Soldiers 33 07/07/07 29,504 Rihanna Feat. Jay-Z Umbrella 34 17/05/08 29,821 Madonna Feat. Justin Timberlake 4 Minutes 35 04/12/04 29,990 Girls Aloud I'll Stand By You To demonstrate how dire these sales are, this weeks: #20 X Factor Finalists sold 22,225 - thats more than the top8 here... #18 Beyoncé sold 25,257 - thats more than the top13. #14 Girls Aloud sold 27,773 - thats more than the top22 here!
December 29, 200816 yr Shakira stuttered along with Hips Don't Lie, yet has a very respectable total tally of almost 600k now I think...she sold around 30k for about 12 weeks running I seem to recall...
December 29, 200816 yr No Tomorrow by Orson was really a low in the chart - it was the week before downloads were included (2 weeks prior to release) as in reality Gnarls Barkely sold more but on downloads alone which were not counted. It is interesting to see what the wilderness was like between declining physicals and rocketing downloads.
December 29, 200816 yr No Tomorrow by Orson was really a low in the chart - it was the week before downloads were included (2 weeks prior to release) as in reality Gnarls Barkely sold more but on downloads alone which were not counted. It is interesting to see what the wilderness was like between declining physicals and rocketing downloads. So Sick was #1 the week after No Tomorrow :P 17,694 - No Tomorrow 28,287 - So Sick 30k - Crazy D/L/A 100k+ - Crazy
December 29, 200816 yr Interesting to think that if songs by acts such as Chico, Orson, Eric Prydz, Ja Rule etc, were released now and got the same sales they would be charting at the lower end of the Top 20!
December 29, 200816 yr So Sick was #1 the week after No Tomorrow :P 17,694 - No Tomorrow 28,287 - So Sick 30k - Crazy D/L/A 100k+ - Crazy aaah, I knew it was sometime soon after! Still, GB would have been #1 instead of Orson has the sales been counted :P
December 29, 200816 yr Wow, January really is the time to get cheap no1's. Hopefully The Saturdays will take advantage of that with 'Issues' :lol: :P
December 30, 200816 yr it was a shame about Orson being the lowest-it was a good song, sold quite well overall and actually sold more copies in each of the four weeks surrounding its 1 week at no.1!
December 30, 200816 yr Wow, January really is the time to get cheap no1's.yet at one time that wasn't the case. There have been many January's where there have been massive selling number ones but it just seems to have been a more recent thing that sales have been on the low side. In the late 70s to late 80s it was a month with many million selling, and near million selling, singles. It seems like from the late 80s record labels gave up on making it a month for promoting big new singles, though there have been some high selling singles in that month since then eg Spaceman by Babylon Zoo in 1996. But in the 2000s especially it has been a month for low sellers.
December 30, 200816 yr it was a shame about Orson being the lowest-it was a good song, sold quite well overall and actually sold more copies in each of the four weeks surrounding its 1 week at no.1!it went on to be the 12th best seller of 2006 with sales of 227,000. Alan Jones wrote about the song when it was in its 6th week on the chart: Meanwhile, Orson's debut single No Tomorrow spends its sixth straight week in the Top 5, and, oddly, has sold more copies every week that the 17,694 it sold when it reached number one three weeks ago - the lowest sales ever for a number one. No Tomorrow has progressed 5-2-1-3-5-4, while its weekly sales have moved 22,337-21,030-17,694-19,181-18,103-18,396. The band's eagerly awaited debut album Bright Idea isn't released for a further six weeks (22 May). (from Music Week, 15/04/06) It then spent a further week in the top 5, again at #4, with sales of 15,834, then fell to #7 (11,498) and then out of the top 10. Edited December 30, 200816 yr by Robbie
December 30, 200816 yr Also I remember there never used to be a chart after the Xmas chart, the same chart was used for 2 weeks running, back in the 70s, and early 80s.
December 30, 200816 yr Interesting to think that if songs by acts such as Chico, Orson, Eric Prydz, Ja Rule etc, were released now and got the same sales they would be charting at the lower end of the Top 20! If they came out they may have sold more due to the increase in download, or is that overcomplicating things :P
January 4, 200916 yr Also I remember there never used to be a chart after the Xmas chart, the same chart was used for 2 weeks running, back in the 70s, and early 80s. Also occasionally in the 50s & 60s Edited January 4, 200916 yr by Euro Music
January 4, 200916 yr A bad sales figure for Orson there! Didn't it actually sell more copies at lower positions as well? Wonder what was wrong with the buying public that week!
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